Children Do Love Their Toys
by Xylobones
Summary: AU, human Toa Nuva. It has been five years since Makuta was defeated by his brother, Mata Nui, and Spherus Magna is enjoying a time of peace and happiness. Can this peace last forever? Or will ancient evil find its way back? -ON HIATUS-
1. Prologue

**This is something I've had on my imaginary to-do pile for almost a year now. It features the Toa Nuva as the main characters, only their human and have (mostly) all got married and have had/are having kids now. I've spent ages thinking of family relations and everything, so I hope I get to give them all a mention. If it gets too confusing then I'll put the list up, heh heh.**

**Anyway, *ahem*.**

**_It has been five years since Makuta was defeated by his brother, Mata Nui, and Spherus Magna is enjoying a time of peace and happiness. Can this peace last forever? Or will ancient evil find its way back?_**

* * *

Prologue

"Come on, Gali, one last push!" Tahu cried excitedly as he clutched his wife's hand. He'd waited nine months for this, and hell, had it been a bad pregnancy for poor Gali.

"I can't do it, Tahu," Gali whimpered, her long brown hair was plastered to her face with sweat. She was pale and obviously very ill.

"Don't be silly, of course you can. Come on now," Tahu soothed, stroking hair out of his wife's eyes.

"Mrs Pyro, one last push and your baby will be here," the Ga-Matoran midwife said.

"I'm not going to make it, Tahu," Gali moaned.

* * *

"Um, shouldn't we be at the hospital with Tahu and Gali right now?" Onua asked, tentatively. Pohatu huffed as he put down a heavy box of his sports trophies.

"It's not _my _fault that Gali decided to go into labour at the same time as I planned to move into the new apartment!" the Toa of Stone joked to his older brother. "Don't worry, Onua. We'll just bring in the last few boxes and then head down right away."

Kopaka stepped in with a box of trainers and football shoes. "Tahu doesn't deserve the life he has. That massive house, a baby… Gali…" The last part he said too quietly for his cousins to hear.

"That dog he has ain't so bad, either," Pohatu laughed, only to be served one evil glare by Kopaka.

* * *

"I'm not going to make it, Tahu."

"Yes you are, our baby's nearly here now," Tahu told her, not truly listening to what she was saying.

"I know, I mean that I-I… AAAAARGH!" Gali screamed in pain as the baby finally arrived.

"Congratulations, Toa Tahu, it's a girl," the midwife said, cleaning the baby before wrapping it in a blanket and handing it to the father.

* * *

"That's the last box," Pohatu said, dusting off his hands. "Let's go, quickly, or we'll miss the exciting bit!"

"Pohatu, you're too squeamish to stand in a room where a woman's giving birth! You run when Onua has a nosebleed," Kopaka snarled, not trying to be funny in the least.

"I haven't had a nosebleed in years!" the Earth Toa moaned.

"Not since he looked through that sports magazine I showed him when we were teenagers," Pohatu chuckled to Kopaka, who just sighed and looked out of the window.

"It's raining now," he said emotionlessly.

"Yuck," Pohatu moaned, reaching for an umbrella sticking out of a nearby box.

* * *

"She's beautiful! Gali, look at her, our little baby girl," he cooed, showing her to Gali.

"Varita…" Gali whispered, closing her eyes.

"Gali? GALI!" Tahu screamed. The heart rate monitor went blank.

"I'm sorry, sir, but… your wife has died."

"No…"

This was, perhaps, the worst time for the three youngest males in the Albus family to step in. Upon seeing the pale, dead form of Gali, Pohatu, Onua and Kopaka rushed forth and began bustling around the hospital bed, yelling and shouting, demanding to know what had happened. A bunch of Ga-Matoran nurses rushed in and tried to calm the three Toa. Kopaka allowed himself to be pulled away with ease, which only allowed Onua and Pohatu more room to cry and yell whilst bent over the dead woman. The Ice Toa heard a soft sniffling behind him – Tahu. He turned and back handed the Fire Toa, who was thrown across the room.

"This is your fucking fault!" he yelled, running forward to kick the Fire Toa in the gut. Tahu refused to defend himself, and Kopaka my well have seriously hurt him if his cousins didn't pull him off the weeping Toa of Fire.

"Get Doctors Calder and Pyro immediately!" the midwife called to two of the nurses. They were off in a shot and back before long, the two senior doctors close behind them.

Doctor Calder, who just so happened to be Gali's mother, Tyra Calder, saw the scene and burst into tears. The other doctor, Nokama Pyro, rushed to her son and hefted him off the floor. Tahu buried his face into her shoulder and continued to cry, shoulders shaking violently, the baby still clutched tightly in his arms.

"Hand her to me, Tahu, I don't want her to get hurt," she said soothingly to her son as she gently eased her granddaughter out of his arms. Kopaka looked ready to strike Tahu again, lurching forwards. He managed to hold himself back, however, when he saw the little girl.

And when his eyes met hers, he knew a part of Gali was still with them, however small it was.

* * *

**Well, there ya have it, the prologue of my new story - reviesed already, despite only having been written for the first time just yesterday, heh heh...**

**Please review, the plot bunnies are looking bored to the point of attacking me...**


	2. Surprise

**Okay, so here goes chapter one again. Enjoy!**

* * *

Chapter One: Surprise

_Twelve years later_

"Quiet, everyone!" Lewa whispered loudly as he ducked away from the window in Tahu's hallway and back to the living room. "She's here!" The Toa of Air took his place behind one of the sofas, next to his twin sons and wife. Everyone else hid behind the furniture, too, just in time to hear the rattle of Varita's keys in the lock of the front door.

"Hello? Dad? Why is it so dark in here?" she asked, stepping into the living room. She cautiously flicked the light switch on.

"SURPRISE!" the thirty or so gathered friends and family members shouted. The young girl squealed in surprise as she was bombarded by party poppers, streamers and silly string.

"I thought you'd all forgotten!" she cried happily as her father came up to her and gave her a tight squeeze.

"Never, sweetie. Happy birthday!" he said, kissing the top of his daughter's head. "Go get changed and then we can enjoy the party!" As instructed, the girl ran up the stairs to her room, hastily pulling off her blue school uniform and exchanging it for her preferred black skinny shorts and black vest top under an open red short sleeved blouse.

She practically danced back down to the living room, where she was tackled by Lewa's twin sons, Sunako and Jask.

"Happy birthday, Varita!" they chimed in unison, thrusting two neatly wrapped gifts at her. She took them and went to sit down on the sofa, one boy on either side of her. She removed the shiny green paper to reveal a lime green dress in one and a matching pair of boots in the other.

"Oh, they're _beautiful!" _she squealed, holding the dress up to her chest and facing the mirror that hung over the fire place. It looked simply gorgeous, accompanying her yellow eyes and black hair perfectly.

Next to give her a present were her paternal grandparents, Vakama and Nokama. They gave her a hefty amount of cash and a box of luxury chocolates.

"You spoil her, Dad," Tahu said to Vakama. The old man laughed and patted his son on the back.

"Someone has to," he said in the wise way only an old man can. "Where are Aquila and Tyra?" he asked. Aquila and Tyra were Varita's maternal grandparents.

"They should be here somewhere, Dad. Did you _bring_ your glasses?" Tahu laughed. Vakama wacked him round the back of the head with his walking stick.

"Don't be cheeky," he said before sitting down on the sofa next to his wife.

Varita was leaping around from person to person, receiving present after present. She got so many! Makeup, clothes, money, a simply _stunning _necklace from Aquila and Tyra – once they were located, asleep in the kitchen – as well as numerous other pieces of jewellery and a knitted scarf from Ivana, her great grandmother and Dume's widowed wife. At ninety-six, Ivana was the oldest person in her family, Dume having passed away two years before at age ninety-nine. Because of her age, Ivana couldn't always come to social gathering such as her great granddaughter's twelfth birthday, but she always sent presents.

After everyone had given her presents, the children all sat down to play party games as the adults went into the kitchen to bring in the enormous buffet that the assembled women had put together, namely Nokama, Tyra and her second daughter (Gali's younger sister) Nixie, Thelka (Matau's wife), Shyama (Lewa's wife), Sekai (Whenua's wife) and Asuka (Nuju's wife).

The children, Varita, Sunako, Jask and Nixie and Takanuva's daughter Meïla, were happily playing pin the tail on the Mahi in the living room, a game which, for some reason, no one could beat Meïla at.

"I'm just that good," the fourteen year old girl giggled, having just pinned the tail slap bang into the right place for the fifth time. Takanuva threw a cushion at her head and told her to let her cousin win, laughing as he did so. Takanuva and Nixie had had Meïla when they were still in their late teens. Everyone had chastised Takanuva for getting Nixie pregnant when she was just eighteen, but the two had managed to raise Meïla without incident. Meïla _was_ the odd one of the bunch, though.

"I had this dream about pink elephants once," she had told Varita one day.

"Doesn't that mean you're on drugs?" the younger girl had replied.

"Yeah, but this was an actual _dream_, not a drug induced psyche out. Although, I spoke to this guy once about it and he said that when he'd used drugs last he'd had a conversation with his food and it screamed when he ate it."

Yes, always the odd one. Nevertheless, she _was _Varita's cousin, and the two were very close.

Tahu watched the four young individuals playing with a smile of fondness; the scene reminded him of when he'd been a child. He'd spent his time playing with Gali, Nixie, Lewa, Pohatu and Onua. Kopaka would often hang around with them, too, but he'd always be reading a book or examining one of the many star charts his mother, Asuka, gave him. She was an astrophysics teacher, you see, at a university the Ga-Matoran had built when they came to Spherus Magna, and had been a teacher in Ga-Metru for years before the Great Cataclysm.

Speaking of the second youngest of the Albus clan, where was he? Tahu looked around for a while, eventually locating the Ice Toa sat in one of the black leather arm chairs. He was in his usual white turtleneck sweater and black denim jeans, a breadstick hanging out of his mouth and his chrome framed glasses perched precariously on the bridge of his nose.

"Nice to see you decided to show up," Tahu mumbled, not quite begrudgingly, but not exactly nicely. The Toa of Ice looked up at him.

"Someone had to make sure you didn't torch the place in a drunken fit," he said in his usual emotionless tone.

"I haven't been drunk since before Varita was born!" he moaned. Kopaka sneered.

"We all know what _that _night led to." Well, roaring sex, for one thing, only with the after affect of a pregnant Gali in the morning. Gali had been fairly drunk, too, though, so it wasn't _entirely _Tahu's fault. After a moment, however, the Fire Toa realised Kopaka may have been referring to the _nine months later _part. Tahu shook his head and walked away, not wanting to start anything during his daughter's birthday party.

The party henceforth went by without incident, and everyone went home in high spirits and full of good food. Varita was surprisingly sleepy by the time her and Tahu had finished cleaning the house.

"Go to bed, honey, you look exhausted," he said, stroking her hair and giving her a gentle shove towards the stairs. She went without question.

Once in her room, she looked around it like she always did when entering her space, just to make sure nothing was out of place. Normally, everything would be as she had left it, but not this time. This time, there was a large, lumpy present on her bed, wrapped in black paper with glittering red stars. It was very neatly wrapped, it put even Nokama's best handiwork to shame, but, at the same time, there was something sinister about it. The way the light from the lamp on the bedside table shone on the stars made them look almost like eyes, following her every move around the room.

Before she went to examine it, Varita backed out of her room and went to brush her teeth in the bathroom. When she returned, the gift was still there. Something was different, though. Was it her, or had it moved closer to the door? It was still on the bed, only closer to the edge nearest the door. She gingerly stepped towards it; one foot at a time as if she was approaching a wild Rahi caught in a trap and didn't want to startle it. It took what seemed like an eternity to reach the gift, and all the while Varita was wondering why she was so afraid of it. It was just a present, right?

Finally, she just grit her teeth ad flung herself onto the bed, right next to the ominous present. She pulled the neatly curled ribbon off, shortly followed by the paper, and onto her lap fell a piece of paper and a doll.

It was a perfectly normal looking doll, made in the likeness of an Ash Bear. It had orange-brown fur and big yellow eyes, just like Varita's own. The piece of paper was what seemed worrying to Varita, as it said, in blood red ink, "I'm with you always". The handwriting clearly wasn't her father's, or that of anyone else she knew. Did she have a secret admirer? Anyone who knew her well enough would have known that she was _far _too old for dolls, but, even so, she found it to be quite adorable, and so placed it on the shelf above her bed with all of her other dolls before changing into her purple night dress and going to sleep.

Meanwhile, downstairs, Tahu was glugging down one last drink before going to bed. A glass of water, with plenty ice. It was his favourite thing when something didn't seem right, and right now, he had a very bad feeling about something. So bad, in fact, that he managed to melt the ice in his water without meaning to.

After finishing his water, he quietly walked up the stairs so as not to disturb Varita. When he passed the door, the feeling of something bad intensified, so greatly that it made his head hurt. He stopped and opened the door to his daughter's room the slightest amount, only to be met with a wave of intense dark energy that sent him flying against the wall behind him and into unconsciousness.

* * *

**I'm happier with how this turned out than the original version, despite their being little difference, save for the nostalgia moment and Kopaka being added in. Please review, or the plot bunnies will try to take over the world and force you all to! :O**


	3. Nightmare

**Once again, I'm not sure how I feel about this chapter. Oh, and, by the way, I'm British. Keep that in mind when reading, please :D**

* * *

Chapter 2: Nightmare

_Click._

"Varita…" a voice whispered. "Open your eyes, my little one." It was a peculiar voice; warm and loving, and yet, at the same time, full of jealousy and rage. Varita shivered slightly and opened her eyes, only to be met with nothing more than darkness, a darkness which spanned out for eternity in every direction.

Varita sat up and looked around. There was simply nothing but her in this empty darkness. So where had that voice come from? There was a moment when she was overcome with warmth, the sort you get from a hug with someone you love very much. She also sensed a distinct presence behind her.

_Click, click._

"Little Varita, look at me, my lovely," the voice said. Varita turned, a slight amount of fear in her heart, a fear which was overcome by wonder as she turned to see her mother, knelt behind her as if she'd been watching her sleep.

"Mum? B-but _how?"_ The woman smiled, her yellow eyes – which were identical to Varita's – glowed with fondness, but even Varita, with all of her innocent naivety, could tell there was something wrong with those eyes. Under the love and warmth, there was the slightest hint of raw anger and hatred.

_Click, click, click._

The woman gently put her hands on the little girl's shoulders and her smile widened.

"It feels so good to have your warm flesh beneath my hands…" she said. Was it just Varita, or was there a hungry undertone to the woman's voice? Gali brushed aside a strand of her midnight black hair.

_Click, click, click, click._

"I love you, sweetie," she purred. Varita smiled, all feelings of doubt beginning to slip away.

"I love you, too, Mum," Varita said shyly. She had always wondered what she'd say to her mother if she ever met her, but all the planning in the world could never truly prepare her.

_Click, click, click, click, click._

"Darling…" the woman said, caressing the young girl's cheek. "Prove it." Varita's eyes widened slightly.

"What do you mean?" Varita asked, uncertainty whizzing back.

_Clickclickclickclickclick._

"I want you to prove to me that you love me," she purred, soothingly. "We've been apart for so long, darling, how can I be sure I truly mean that much to you?" Varita narrowed her eyes.

"You're my _mother! _You shouldn't have to question it!" she complained.

_Clickclickclickclickclick._

"True, sweetie, but I died before you can remember. You had no time to learn to love me," she pointed out, stroking the girl's cheek once more. Varita slapped her hand away.

"You're not my mother!" she hissed, standing up. "You wouldn't have to ask if I loved you if you were! You'd just _know!" _

_Clickclickclickclickclick._

Gali – or the image of her, I should say – stood up and grabbed the girl's arms, far too hard for Varita's liking. She struggled to get away from the being in front of her, but it just held on harder.

"Look at me, girl. Look into my eyes and see what pain I've been through," the thing hissed. Against her will, Varita did so, and instantly screamed in terror.

_Clickclickclickclickclick._

The being's eyes were gone, replaced with white hot fire. The fire was spreading over the fake Gali's face, eating away at the skin and flesh and hair, leaving only the bones, which also disintegrated into ash after a while. The ash swirled up into an intense, black tornado, and reformed as a dark, shadowy humanoid form with glowing red eyes.

"Oh, Mata Nui…" she whimpered as the figure approached her.

_Crack._

"You are going to do as I say, you wretched little girl," the thing hissed, a tendril of its dark power reaching out to her. It slowly, almost seductively caressed her almost pearlescent face. As it touched her, she felt as if she was overcome by evil.

"You're going to-"

"Wake up!" a familiar voice interrupted.

"What?" she murmured, groggily. She felt so sleepy, why would she want to wake up?

"Wake up, right now!" the familiar voice said again.

"But I'm so tired…" she moaned.

"You have to wake up this second!" the voice shouted.

"Fine," Varita mumbled, opening her eyes. She yelped as she saw a terrified Tahu lent over her. He sighed in relief and sat down on the bed by Varita's feet, head in his hands.

"Bloody hell, Varita… Don't _scare _me like that!" he moaned into his hands. Varita sat up, looking worriedly at her father.

"Are you okay?" she asked him, tentatively. He looked up at her, his eyes looked so drained. He moved over to her and gave her a tight hug.

"Yes, honey. I was just worried about you when you started screaming in your sleep," he said. He sounded exhausted. "Did you have a bad dream?" The girl nodded.

"I'm sorry for scaring you, Dad," she said, putting a hand on his arm, and then proceeding to hug it. He put his free arm round her shoulders.

"It's not your fault," he said softly. "What happened in your dream?" Varita bit her lip.

"I don't think you'd like it," she said quietly. She looked over at the alarm clock by her bed. It was one thirty in the morning.

"No-one likes nightmares, honey," he said, stroking her back. "Please tell me, I promise it'll help." Varita sniffed.

"I dreamt about Mum," she confessed. Tahu stiffened around her.

"Go on," he coaxed after a moment.

"She asked me to prove to her that I loved her, but she got angry and turned into something else when I said I shouldn't have to. And then she… _it _started telling me what I was going to do, but you woke me up before it could." She sniffed and reached for a tissue from the box on her bedside table. She blew her nose and binned the tissue before adding, "I was really scared."

Tahu nodded and gently pulled her off him, taking her by the shoulders and looking into her yellow eyes with his red ones. After a moment his gaze strayed to somewhere behind and above her – to the Ash Bear doll.

"What's that?" he asked. "I've never seen that one before." He stood up and took it from the shelf. He looked it over for a moment and then pointed to the eyes.

"I thought Ash Bears had yellow eyes," he said. Varita looked at the doll.

"They were yellow before," she said, frowning. "And I don't know where it came from; it was on my bed when I came in here yesterday evening." It was Tahu's turn to frown.

"I don't like the sound of this," he grumbled, his deep voice mixed with worry seemed to make the entire room shake. He rubbed his eyes, he was exhausted. "I'm going to hold on to this for now, not that I_ want _to – there's something I really don't like about this thing. Tomorrow, I'm going to pop down to Mum and Dad's and have them check it out; they know about this sort of thing, you see. But, for the time being, try to go back to sleep." He rubbed his head as he finished, wincing as he touched it.

"Dad, are you okay?" Varita asked.

"Yeah, honey, I just fell and bashed my head earlier… I think," he said.

"What do you mean "I think"?"

"I don't actually remember," he confessed. "I musta hit it hard, eh?" Varita looked at her father in disbelief.

"Most people would go to a hospital about that," she pointed out.

"Not me," Tahu laughed.

"Strange man," Varita said before lying back in bed.

"People tend to go crazy after seeing all the crap me and the other Toa have," he joked.

* * *

**This goes out to TasumiDreamer for being my first reviewer! Thank you, hun!  
Please review!**


	4. Parents

**Well, here be chapter three. Here, we get to see more characters and more of the Ash Bear doll's EVILLNESS! (Yes, I am hyper.) Enjoy!**

* * *

Chapter 3: Parents

The next day, as he'd said, Tahu visited his parents, Ash Bear doll firmly tucked under one arm as he opened the driver's side door of his red sports car that had been built for him especially.

Hey, even retired heroes need their little luxuries.

The engine roared as he drove down the normally quiet streets of this suburban metropolis the Matoran and Agori had built since the defeat of Makuta seventeen years ago. It was a beautiful city, all bright and beautiful. The metallic buildings towered over streets lined with trees of varying kinds, with isles of grass down the centre of the wider roads. Plants, flowers, water features and wildlife, though discreet, were everywhere. Tahu loved it, as did his fellow former Matoran Universe dwellers.

Vakama and Nokama lived in a secluded corner of the city, one that looked more like a countryside village than anything else. The houses were spread out evenly, each with a garden overflowing with flowers. Nokama was very house proud, and even more garden proud. The dry stone wall surrounding the front garden was completely hidden thanks to the waterfall like arrangement of purple flowers. The path leading to the door was lined by alternating patches of red and blue flowers, and there was a vine of white roses grown around the front door. The small lawn was neatly cut and the edges were perfectly trimmed as if done with a ruler. A wooden bench sat before a trellis of flowers. It was undeniably gorgeous.

_I wish she'd teach me how to garden like this, _Tahu thought as he strolled up to the door. He knocked on it three times and had to leap back as the door opened and Vakama's trusty Alsatian, Burnak, bounded up to him, jumping up to put his paws right on Tahu's chest. Tahu would have got a face full of lick if it hadn't been for Nokama's firm but gentle grip on his collar pulling him off her son.

"Tahu, honey! Do come in. Would you like a cup of tea?" she said dragging the dog behind her so Tahu could step in.

"That'd be lovely, Mum," he said earnestly, steeping into the fantastic house.

The inside of the house was made up like a farmhouse cottage – all grand fireplaces and chunky wooden furniture. Tahu loved popping in for a visit from time to time, as it was a nice breath of fresh air for him, what with his super modern house that may as well have been something that had dropped out of a sci-fi film. He had to wonder how the Onu-Matoran had come up with all of the new technology in just seventeen years. Nuparu had been at the head of it all, naturally.

Tahu sat himself down in the living room, deciding to fill one of the huge armchairs nearest the fire. It was late in the year by now and rapidly getting colder as winter drew in. Burnak trotted up to Tahu and sat in front of him, panting and wagging his tail happily. Tahu began to fuss the dog whilst he took a moment to examine the large collection of books that lined the shelves on the other side of the room. They were fascinating books on all sorts of topics – everything from classic literature to fighting techniques from days of old. Tahu's parents were well educated people.

Nokama glided in, swiftly as a gentle stream, carrying a mug of tea in each hand. She put Tahu's mug – which had been _his_ since he first drank tea many years ago – down on the table in front of him and sat down on the sofa opposite with her own mug resting in her lap. She had failed to notice the doll resting by Tahu's foot thus far.

After she settled on the sofa, she smiled broadly at her son before saying, "So, honey, what brings you to my humble abode?"

"There is nothing humble about this house, Mum," he said, smiling. "I was wondering if you could help me with some… detective work, if you will."

"Oh?" the sixty-eight year old Turaga said. Tahu reached down for the doll by his foot and passed it to her.

"I know it's just a doll, but Varita said that it randomly appeared on her bed after the party yesterday," he explained. What Tahu hadn't been told about was the piece of paper, which was considerably more significant than Varita had assumed. "Also, Varita had a nightmare about Gali last night."

"How could anyone have a nightmare of her?" Nokama asked as she turned the doll over in her hands. Tahu took in a deep breath before telling his mother what his daughter had told him.

"I see," she said. "Personally, I see nothing wrong with this doll. Your father may have something to say about it though – there is an air of… cruelty to this thing, I suppose."

"Where _is_ Dad?" Tahu asked. Nokama looked up from the doll.

"He's spending the morning at Matau's house," she began, "reminiscing about our glory days, I suppose… not that we considered them to be glorious in the least; all those Vahki chasing after us all the time and the distrust. Even after all these years, I still can't believe that Vakama failed to realise his own _father _had been kidnapped and replaced with Teridax." She cringed as she said that name.

"Teridax toyed with us all, one way or another. He played a good game," Tahu said, the slightest hint of anger in his words.

"Indeed, none of us truly knew what he was up to until the last moment," the woman replied. Tahu growled something incoherent. "None of what happened in Karda Nui is your fault, darling. Like I said, none of us knew." Tahu nodded and sipped his tea.

"Still, everything turned alright in the end, didn't it?" Tahu said, cheering up a bit. Nokama smiled in a wise, old woman-y way.

"Indeed they did." She looked like she may have continued, but she was cut off by Vakama opening the front door in the loudest possible manner.

"Bloody doors! We were better off in our little huts with cloths over the entryway – no effort or backbreaking had to be put into opening _those!" _he complained loudly. He spent a moment bustling about in the hallway, taking off his hat and coat and hanging them on _his _coat hook in the cupboard under the stairs. It was a full five minutes before a trudged into the living room.

"Tahu, my boy!" he cheered. Tahu grinned.

"Hey, Dad!" he said, standing up and embracing his elderly father. The old man sat down next to his wife, giving her a rather wet kiss on the cheek as he did so. Nokama giggled like a little school girl and blushed, slapping her husband's knee.

"Not whilst I'm here, guys, please," Tahu moaned childishly. The two Turaga just laughed cheekily.

"So, what brings you here, sonny?" Vakama asked. Nokama showed him the doll as Tahu explained the reason for his visit.

"Hmm…" was all the old man said for quite some time. He had yet to touch the doll, instead just settling for his wife to hold it up for him to see. "There _is _something peculiar about it, isn't there? Let me see it properly." He took the doll from Nokama. Was it just Tahu, or was their a brief moment when the doll's eyes flashed red (having returned yellow since last night) as if sensing an old enemy? As the doll left Nokama's hands, Vakama was hit with the full force of whatever was within.

"Oh my!" the Fire Turaga said before lapsing into a trance like state. He was having a vision – the first one in a long time – and what he saw troubled him deeply.

Little Varita, chained and bound like a prisoner. The odd thing was, the chains led from the ceiling, causing her to be strung up like a puppet. Her head was bowed and she would have been knelt on the floor, if it hadn't been for the chains holding her somewhere between stood up and crouched down. Vakama was desperate to reach out and help his young granddaughter, but instead he shrank back in fear as he saw the glowing red eyes behind her.

The eyes of Makuta Teridax.

"Vakama?" he heard Nokama shouting, she seemed so distant, but after she called his name again and splashed water over his face he was quickly back in his living room.

"Dad, are you okay?" Tahu asked. He was knelt on the floor with Vakama's wrinkled hands in his, looking up at his father's face with worried eyes. The old man took a moment to gather is thoughts, eyes wide and leaping from place to place around the room. After a while, he looked at his son and cried, "Get rid of it!" and backhanded it towards the fireplace.

If asked, both Tahu and Nokama would have agreed that they had heard something akin to a vile hiss when the doll was thrown towards the flames. Vakama wouldn't have been able to say, as he was still having a raging fit. The doll came to rest a foot or so away, upright with all four paws on the thick red rug. Its gleaming red eyes were reflecting the fire and, was it just Tahu's imagination, or was it trying to move away from the fire without being seen?

Nokama was desperately trying to calm her husband, holding his hand and stroking his arm, speaking softly to him in order to soothe him. Tahu charged at the doll and grabbed it by the scruff of its neck, bringing it up to his face as if it were a puppy in store for an angry lecture that it wouldn't be able to understand anyway.

"What the hell is this thing?" he growled, even as its dark power began to affect him. Tahu began to feel awfully fuzzy, his vision clouding over and his hearing fading. Before things could get any worse, Tahu began to activate his fire power, focusing it through his hand to ignite the wretched doll.

"Burn," he hissed, but his fire did nothing. Tahu was becoming more and more dizzy and faint and began stumbling around the room, looking for support. He felt a firm grasp on his arms and found himself in an armchair, the doll sat in front of him on the coffee table.

"What happened?" he moaned after he had recovered. Nokama was looking at him worriedly and Vakama had managed to doze off where he was sat. Tahu was still looking woozy, so Nokama activated her limited control over water and used it to soothe her son's head, holding a bubble to each temple. After a moment, everything became perfectly clear again, so he explained what had happened to his mother.

"This _thing _is getting worse and worse by the second! You need to destroy it, Tahu," she growled.

"I _tried," _he moaned, "it just made me feel ill."

"Well, this thing is obviously evil, so take it to Takanuva – he may be able to do something," Nokama advised. Tahu nodded and pulled himself out of the chair. The first thing he did was grab a pair of tongs from the old copper bucket full of coal by the fire and use them to pick up the doll.

"There's no way in hell I'm touching that thing with my bare hands again," he explained after his mother gave him a quizzical look. He could have sworn the doll squirmed as the tongs closed in around its throat.

Just as he turned to leave, Nokama noticed the thick patch of dried blood stuck in his hair.

"What's that?" she asked. Tahu touched the spot and winced.

"Flesh wound?" Nokama rolled her eyes and cleaned the blood off before practically throwing him out the door.

"There's a reason why I became a doctor!" she shouted after him.

* * *

**Baaaad attempt at a Monty Python reference at the end there - tell me if you spot it. Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed it and please review!**


	5. Old Friends

**Well, seeing as I managed to kill my memory stick, I've had to re-write this chapter as well as everything else I had on said stick. That is also my excuse for the long gap between chapters – sorry, folks!**

**

* * *

**

Chapter 4: Old Friends

Tahu had a random and unexplainable liking for the sound of car tyres rolling over gravel. Because of this peculiar thing, he found himself messing up his parking attempt, completely on purpose, several times when he arrived at the apartment building Takanuva lived in, just so he could hear that noise.

After he'd had his fun, he strolled over to the door and hit the buzzer for apartment number sixty-six – the penthouse at the very top of the building.

"Hello?" a weak female voice called out.

"Hey there, it's Tahu," the Fire Toa replied. "Is that Nixie?"

"Nope," the voice replied. "It's Meïla." She began coughing violently.

"You all right?" Tahu asked, clearly worried about his niece.

"Been better," Meïla confessed. "Mum says I have something called norovirus. You should have seen the colour of my vomit this morning!" Tahu frowned at the unwanted information.

"Lovely," he said. "Can I come in?"

"Sure," the over-excitable girl said as she buzzed the door open for him.

"Thanks," he said as he entered.

The first thing Tahu noticed as he entered was that the lift was out of order. Great, he had to climb sity-six flights of stairs.

Thankfully, he hadn't let himself go since the Makuta's defeat, and managed to climb to the top with little effort. Meïla was waiting for him at the top, perched precariously on the banister, almost like a caged songbird. As soon as her uncle came into view, she swung her legs over the side and back onto the landing. She took a few wobbly steps towards the door and opened it for Tahu. The Toa grimaced as she nearly fell over.

"If you have norovirus you really should be in bed, Meï," he said. She just grinned up at him.

"I hate spending all day in bed," she explained.

"I never would have guessed," Tahu said, recalling one time he and Gali had babysat her when she was only two, back when Gali was in the early stages of pregnancy. They'd put the toddler Meïla to bed, only to for her to climb out again and waddle unsteadily back into the living room. This happened several more times before she finally fell asleep.

The two entered the living room, where Tahu found Takanuva watching a Kolhii match on his widescreen TV, bowl of crisps on the table and half-empty can of lemonade in one hand. Tahu took a quick glance at the score – the Ta-Matoran team was loosing badly to both the Po- and Ko-Matoran teams.

Dang, there goes his Kolhii-based ego. Again.

Takanuva was so absorbed in the game that he hadn't realised Tahu had entered, so Meïla pounced on him.

"Holy Kanoka!" he yelled as his can of lemonade went flying across the room, landing on the carpet on allowing its clear contents to gush out into the carpet. Meïla rolled off him and proceeded to lie on the floor as she laughed, only to be overcome by a wave of nausea and promptly heave herself off the carpet in order to get to the bathroom before last night's dinner reappeared… again.

"What on Spherus Magna?" Nixie cried as she barged in from the kitchen. Tahu was slightly taken aback by how scary she looked – large knife in one hand and half-chopped carrot in the other. "Takanuva, you clumsy arse!" she yelled as she saw the lemonade stain on the carpet. "That had _better _come out!" She turned on her heel and returned to the kitchen, long brown ponytail waving from side to side in an irritated manner. Tahu put it down the "that time of the month".

Takanuva finally noticed his guest.

"Tahu!" he beamed, clapping his friend on the arm. "What brings you to my humble abode?"

Tahu laughed. "This place is as humble as the Great Temple ever was."

"Maybe so," Takanuva replied, "but the Great Temple had a certain grandness to it that no building could ever have again, wouldn't you say?" Tahu had to agree.

"So," Takanuva said, "what brings you here?" Tahu held out the doll, which he'd stuffed into his bag, coal tongs still around its throat. Takanuva laughed at the thing.

"Thanks, Tahu, but I'm a little old for toys." Tahu rolled his eyes.

"It's not a _present, _idiot," he snarled. "It's… evil, I think. I need you to destroy it."

"It's a stuffed Ash Bear, can't you just burn it?" he asked, blonde eyebrow sky high.

Tahu rolled his eyes. "Don't you think I may have tried that already?" Takanuva shrugged. "There's something evil about this doll. It appeared in Varita's room after the party, and she had a nightmare that night."

"Maybe she just had a little too much to eat?" Takanuva suggested. Tahu had to admit that he never thought it could have been a regular nightmare at the time, but his father's vision upon touching the doll made the thought somewhat invalid. He explained this to Takanuva.

"Turaga Vakama has visions all the time," Takanuva said somewhat tactlessly. The next thing he knew, Tahu's hand was grasping his shoulder far too tightly to be comfortable.

"Never speak against my father, or any other member of my family," Tahu snarled. The Fire Toa's stress and anxiety hit Takanuva like a slap in the face.

"I… Sorry, Tahu," he said quietly. Tahu released his grip on the other's shoulder.

"Anyway," Tahu growled, "I need you to destroy this with your light powers."

"Alright," Takanuva said, a little dazed. "Pop it there." He pointed to the coffee table. Tahu complied and placed the wretched doll down.

Taknuva sat down on the sofa, concentrating on the doll. Meïla reappeared, standing a little distance away from the two adults. She didn't want to get caught up in anything that may pop out of the doll. She seemed intent on watching but the buzzer went off and she was the only one available to see to it.

Takanuva sent his power forth, creating a blanket of light that he wrapped around the Ash Bear doll. As soon a he felt it within his net, he tightened his grip, shrinking the golden light. He felt something push back, something dark and evil. It felt so similar; it felt like the dark energy he'd sensed when he was one with the Makuta. He suddenly felt himself working faster, desperate to get rid of that one little trace of evil.

He faintly heard Meïla say something to Tahu, who turned and went out into the hall. It wasn't long after that when he felt something rip, like cloth that was holding too much and had split. The sound seemed to reverberate around the room, a horrible resounding-

_Crack._

There was a scream, an otherworldly scream of pain and suddenly there were bits of orange cloth all over the room. There was a sound of exploding, and Nixie came charging back in and shouted something nobody heard. Takanuva felt tired, more so than he ever remembered doing before. But he didn't have time to be tired, but he didn't have the strength to react to what he saw next, either.

Antidermis, a huge cloud of the stuff was floating up out of the stuffing and cloth used to make the doll. Tahu and Meïla came back in with a rather pasty looking Varita behind them. It took them all a moment to notice the Anitdermis, but when they did Tahu had Varita out of the door and back down the stairs, the little girl scooped up in his arms. Meïla crumpled to the ground, sickness taking over again. Takanuva came round and started blasting the Antidermis, but it was out of the window (which shattered, again causing Nixie to shout something at him) and descending rapidly, waiting for Tahu and Varita to run straight into it.

Which they did.

Tahu charged out of the front door and set Varita down. She looked up at her father and started asking about the Antidermis. Tahu didn't have time to reply as the Antidermis fell upon her. She screamed in fear, which slowly turned to pain. She was so afraid, and she didn't even know what was happening. Tahu was helpless to do anything for her, and even Takanuva couldn't do anything without hurting her once he got down to them. All they could do was watch as Varita succumbed to Makuta Teridax's Antidermis.

* * *

**Phew, finally! Please R&R!**


End file.
